"And the dude kind of hit me too. I tried to sell the call but I'm just happy that we got the win. If we didn't win, I'd be mad tonight."

- LSU senior Marcus Thornton, who had his post-shot whine to the referee pre-planned in case he missed his three-point shot late in the men's hoop game against the Cougars after he claimed he was illegally touched by freshman Klay Thompson.

"I don't stay in the gym an extra hour or two for nothing. I put in the extra hours in the summer. I have more confidence than I probably need."

- Portland State guard Jeremiah Dominguez, who scored 25 points in leading the Vikings to an upset victory over Gonzaga last week.

"It was a spur of the moment deal, and you can be sure that it won't happen again."

- New England Patriots' receiver Wes Welker who was fined last week by the No Fun League [NFL] for making a snow angel after scoring a touchdown.

"I also was taken. Hours of my life are missing."

- Guitarist for The Killers, Dave Keuning, who supports the claim of bandmate Brandon Flowers that the band was abducted by aliens, thus creating the inspiration for their song "Spaceman".

The Lounge is scrupulous about all the holiday amenities. First and foremost, there is nog. One cannot go wrong when the holidays come around and the nog hits the shelves. It is a most wondrous time of the year. After nog, there comes a variety of other holiday favorites - cookies in all shapes and forms, holiday beers with pleasant sounding names like Corsendonk and Samichlaus, almond roca and other types of brittle-type candies - and, of course, chocolate. The Lounge is almost as enamored with chocolate as it is with nog. There are so many platitudes that can be heaped on chocolate that we are surprised it does not crumble under the constant weight of joy. This is why we were distressed to learn that somebody even thought of creating fake chocolates, much less trying to pass them off during the holidays! This is a scandal of colossal proportions! Worse still - people could not even eat the offending faux chocolates. Sacrilege!

As if that was not bad enough, the recent snowstorm trapped everybody in their houses and sensing that people were trapped, that wily NBC took advantage of the situation last week and saw fit to broadcast a montage of their coverage of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Every clip that did not include Michael Phelps and the partially fabricated [Made in China labels not visible] opening ceremonies, of course, were designed to get one pumped up about the fact that NBC is also the network of American broadcast for the upcoming Winter Olympics in 2010. Fortunately, that one will be in Canada [Vancouver], so we will all be seeing live coverage of events, right NBC? Right?

Well, we will always have the internet for our live Olympic results, right NBC? The internet is the television of the 21st century. How do we know that? Well, because a recent study has indicated that nearly half of all women ages 18-44 would rather go without sex for two weeks rather than give up internet access for that same amount of time. Men, those pigs, were less enthusiastic [only 30% or so they say ]. So you working on getting those live internet results and coverage for the Vancouver Olympics, NBC?

Men, naturally, will argue to the internet-savvy women that staying in bed has its benefits - depending on what one does in the bed, of course.

"Are you sure they are going back to the Big Dance?" asks a skeptical Chester "Get Your Hand Off My Thigh" Johnson about the Wazzu men's hoop team after their loss to LSU last week.

No, Chet, if there is one thing the Lounge is absolutely sure of in life, it is that the Lounge is never sure of anything. But the consensus is that there is still a good feeling about Wazzu getting back to the Big Dance for an unprecedented third consecutive time in school history. The game against LSU surely had a brutal final two minutes for the young Cougars, but for 38 minutes, they held their own and a seven-point lead at one point against a team that will likely see post-season play in the NIT if not the NCAA. That makes all four of their losses so far against teams that are likely to see post-season action. Late in the game with just over two minutes remaining and the Cougars down by two, if senior center Aron Baynes was able to corral a loose ball off a missed rebound or the referee called an over-the-back foul on against LSU player who caused the loose ball, there might have been a different outcome and a different sentiment from some of the more fickle outlets. But Big Daddy did not get the ball and LSU finished off the game with a scoring spree and made it look worse than it really was. The positive was that the Cougars out-rebounded the nation's leading rebounding team but were unable to get the plays they needed in crunch time in a close game - exactly the type of scenario that young teams typically encounter. The Cougars are 8-4 and with at least 19 games remaining on their regular season schedule, they still have a chance for their youth to continue to develop and, ultimately, a clear shot at post-season play with the Pac-10 season beginning this weekend.

"Why can't the women get to the post-season this year?" ask Lounge newcomers and husband-and-wife team Mr. And Mrs. Ernie Scrotem about the Lounge's assessment of the women's hoop program last week.

First, Mr. and Mrs. S, please refer to the sentiment laid out above in regards to the Lounge being certain about anything, but youth is a killer in a conference like the Pac-10. The Cougars have a metric ton of youth and it is just not realistic to expect that youth to develop enough in the next eight weeks that they will surpass half the league's teams and joust for a post-season berth. Now, it could happen, but it would not be wise to expect it to happen. The Cougar women are similar to the Cougar men in terms of the youth dominating their respective squads with the major difference being that the Wazzu male vets on the team have some Big Dance memories to draw from while the Wazzu female vets have no such mental deposits in their memory banks. In other words, expect inconsistent results like those that came back from paradise last week when the Cougars split with Hawai'i when they should have swept - at least in the first half of the conference season. By the second half of the conference season, if head coach June Daugherty has everything going in the right direction and there are no injuries, then expectations can be upgraded accordingly.

The last week of 2008 is officially upon us and on Wednesday evening, it will be all over. End-of-the-year parties will abound on that day and if you want to beat the rush to the bar and do a nice turn for a friend in the process, then you may go to this site and Buy Your Friend A Drink - it may help if you live in one of the 17 states, but it is not a requirement, as cocktails know no borders.

As 2008 comes to a close, the Lounge Scientists are in a foul mood because the shift is getting closer and closer to naming scientific names with, uh, well, scientific names and less with fun names like boojum, Pluto or Betelgeuse. The trend in the scientific circles has been to begin veering away from allowing a discovering scientist to name a plant, creature, star or new gene variation with whatever name they can concoct. In astronomy, the sheer volume of the stars in the known universe has dictated a move away from Greek and Roman deities and figures to more easily categorized letters and numbers identifying their location in the cosmos. The fruit fly genetic researchers have had the toughest time coping with the changeover.

"We had particular problems with fruit-fly researchers. They were always giving their genes names like 'hedgehog'," says Lounge Scientist #451, Sue Povey, a scientist from University College in London, who reportedly preferred the name 'Fred' instead.

This means, undoubtedly, that we will need to begin thinking up new names for all the fake chocolates that show up in the new year. It promises to be an arduous task but the Lounge is up to it

+++++++sponsored by Clark's Restaurant+++++++++

Attention COUGAR fans and well-wishers! Winter is here and you have the hunger. How can you afford to go one day further without some tasty morsels from Clark's Restaurant in Grays Harbor - home of the Best Hamburger in Twin Harbors for nine consecutive years? Come in for the burger, fresh homemade fries and milkshakes concocted from homemade ice cream. Go ahead, we dare you to try and pass up more than 12 varieties of hamburgers to choose from, full dinners, lunch and full breakfast served daily. Clark's Restaurant 360.538.1487. Seven miles south of Aberdeen, Washington on Highway 101. Proud supporter of CougZone. Mention this ad for a free small hot chocolate.